May 15, 2017

It's Mend It May!

The other day, I discovered via Instagram that there's a tag for #menditmay where people share their mending adventures! So, I'm taking this moment to pass along the links about mending that I've been coming across.

Mending used to be much more the norm back when many things were made by hand and were much more precious.

I love investigating old repairs. Here's some old darning on a lovely Edwardian day dress.

I'm
so intrigued by the creative new efforts to bring mending and repair to
a more solid and important part of how we live our lives. This is,
after all, how I make my living, i.e. repairing quilts and clothing.
And I'm also very dedicated to living with a smaller footprint, which includes
changing away from the "throw-away" economy.

1. I'll start with a philosophical piece on Tom van Deijnen's blog in which he and Sarah Corbett discuss mending as activism. Sarah is creator of the Craftivist Collective whose motto is "Changing our world one stitch at a time…" Tom says:If you have concerns about social or political issues, but, like me,
you’re not a very outgoing or confrontational person, then you’re
sometimes left wondering whether there’s anything you can do in a way
that feels more true to who you are.

2. Next, two articles which showcase Sweden as a hotspot for setting up structure and venues to support and value repair over buying new.

The World Economic Forum recently published an article entitled "Sweden is paying people to fix their belongings instead of throwing them away." Here are a few quotes from the article:

To combat its ‘throwaway consumer culture’, Sweden has announced
tax breaks on repairs to clothes, bicycles, fridges and washing
machines.

We don’t anticipate that this will make people avoid buying things
overall, but hopefully it will be easier for people to buy high-quality
products because they know it’s affordable to have them fixed if
something breaks.

And we also know that repairs are more labour-intense than
production, which has been largely automised, so expanding repairs could
actually contribute to an expanding labour market and a decrease in
unemployment.

Wow, they've thought of lots of potential benefits. I'm excited to see how it goes!

This family heirloom quilt suffered an ironing disaster, ending up with a hole through all three layers. The owner asked me to add an embroidered dedication to the patch. (This quilt is super interesting. The owner also has the diaries of the quiltmaker that detail the process of making the quilt.)

And finally, a family heirloom quilt that was literally in pieces, many of which I was able to rescue and rebuild the quilt.